1. Technological Field
The present invention relates to a powder supply device which controls the flow rate of a powder to supply the powder.
2. Description of the Related Art
There have been conventionally used powder supply devices which supply predetermined amounts of powders such as toners to the supply destinations such as containers
Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Publication No. 2016-172566 describes a toner filling apparatus which executes toner draw-in filling control for the purpose of improving the filling speed and the filling density while maintaining the toner properties, the toner draw-in filling control being control in which when a control unit fluidizes a toner in a filling tank by a toner fluidizing unit and opens a toner filling path by a filling path opening/closing unit so as to load the fluidized toner from the filling tank to a toner container, the control unit reduces a pressure in the toner container to a negative pressure by a container room sucking unit so as to draw in the toner from the filling tank into the toner container by the negative pressure.
Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Publication No. 2016-172566 also describes regulating a powder flow path cross-sectional area to a comparatively small size, opening the powder filling path by the filling path opening/closing unit so as to fill the powder container with the powder through the powder filling path until a measured value by a measuring unit reaches a target value.
Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Publication No. 2016-172566 also describes closing the powder filling path by sucking air from a mixture of the powder and air in the powder supply path through a filter member to temporarily aggregate the residual powder, in which the filter member is impermeable to the powder but permeable to air.